Sky Fire Tapes

[Terry]

Can anyone tell me if the Sky Fire Videos are worth buying? $40 per is no small amount for VHS, but worthwhile if they're any better than say September Thunder 2003.

[Merlin Ms.]

Re: Sky Fire Tapes

I'd say - - "Save your money"! They are all pretty repetitive year after year. Now if they would make a DVD with the Gold race compilation from several years . . . would be worthwhile! Hope that helps!

[Peashooter]

Re: Sky Fire Tapes

If you have none of them, one or two are worth it if you are a true junkie! Production values are excellent -- edits, music, copy, etc., all professionally done. Much better than the "raw" footage from the tvwordwide vids I've sampled here today.

[MRussell]

Re: Sky Fire Tapes

To be honest, we bought most of them over the years, starting in about 1987, and each year we felt dumber and dumber for pre-ordering at the races. The reason is that we felt (all opinion obviously) that the content quality of the tapes showed a significant decline with each year that passed. We could never figure out why, but it just seemed like they'd fill more and more minutes with "crap" (I never knew what else to call it), meaning strangely-edited clips the airshow performers doing tail slides through smoke. If you're lucky, a Skyfire tape will contain one or two valuable interviews with racers and crew members. It will contain a few moments of VoS footage, some great tail-cam footage from Tsunami and Rare Bear, and in-cockpit footage with Tiger. They usually focused on the maydays and the Tug races in the paddock, but those weren't balanced with the story behind each race (go for the ratings with the scary maydays I guess). Skyfire tapes can NOT deliver the timeless brilliance of a Bob Hoover energy-managment airshow, or the story of an air race from before start to finish, and they don't deliver near the behind-the-scenes look you might expect from a fully-credentialed production crew. Perhaps Skyfire's A.D.D.-style editing just didn't agree with us... they cut each clip so short it always felt like you were short-changed. In other words, someone seeing the races for the first time on a Skyfire video would not be able to grasp a) what the races are about, b) the sense of magic and amazement that the races can deliver, and c) the personalities and challenges behind racing an aircraft at Reno. The final thing that did it for me was that the narrator never, ever, ever shut the heck up.
Again, all of this review is IMHO.

[Terry]

Re: Sky Fire Tapes

Thanks for the insight. My opinion of " September Thunder " '03-'04 is low. '03 seemed to be a recycled T.V. show. '04 had a fake overlayed announcer calling the races (poorly at that). '04 showed near complete races at least, with an interesting shot of the planes shooting over the fence (not "the" fence, some what before that).
One cool thing on the '04, they show Dago's infamous pylon cut from Sunday.

[speeddemon]

Re: Sky Fire Tapes

You could probably put together a 'best of' tape and get about 30 minutes of 'choice' footage from the series.

There is about 30 seconds of AWESOME ramp footage of the planes taxiing out for the gold final from the original tape ('83). The final from Skyfire 2 ('85) is okay, mostly because of Neil Anderson's "whoops" at the end. The footage from inside Stiletto is worth the cost of Skyfire '86 alone...though I don't think much else is very good. Other things I remember (good, at least), are the finals from '90 and '91--the second lap of the '90 race has possibly the best shot ever taken as Skip goes directly over the top of the camera out at the guide pylon between 3 and 4 at about 10 feet...NO, I'm not exaggerating. It is awesome, but fleeting. The in-plane stuff is pretty good...(watching Tiger's window fog over on the start of the '89 race, going along for the ride as Lyle ground-loops the Bear in the '92 race, etc.).

But other than that, I honestly can say that as each year went by, I was less and less interested. In fact, this was one of the reasons I started videotaping myself (i.e. Bradfire), because I figured I could do better. Way too much airshow stuff, way too much Jim Mitchell blabbering and 'showing off' in his best Michael O'Leary "there I was" style....and who the hell is Ram Francis anyhow?

They were more for the casual fan as opposed to the hardcore fan. But lets face it...at the time, it was all there was, so how can you complain?

[Propellerhead]

Re: Sky Fire Tapes

But other than that, I honestly can say that as each year went by, I was less and less interested....Way too much airshow stuff, way too much Jim Mitchell blabbering and 'showing off' in his best Michael O'Leary "there I was" style....

I hear ya. The thing that bugs me about all the tapes is how intrusive the narration can be. I've got the tape goin' at a decent volume for engine noise and here comes Jim Mitchell trying his best to be poetic and wrecking the mood. I spend a lot of time fast forwarding to each Unlimited segment and grinding my teeth over the narration.

The best of the bunch is the '89 tape. You at least get one race from start to finish without the narration and very little airshow. There are a couple of decent short pilot interviews done by Bob Hoover and the Tsunami speed record attempt at Wendover.

The '91 tape is worth it for the Bear, Strega, Tsunami showdown when all three of them broke the previous race record. Fabulous race! You can hear the excitement in Sandy Sanders voice. It always takes me back to that day.

The "Valley of Speed" tape (misspellings and word usage aside) was the best product for our crowd. As far as I know it's no longer available. I'm bummed I didn't get it on DVD.

Rob

[Jay]

Re: Sky Fire Tapes

Skyfire 89?? showed Steve Hinton taking Tsunami around a full lap at Reno, without breaking, about 1 minute long, to see an uninterrupted lap of the course from the pilots point of view.

[John H]

Re: Sky Fire Tapes

Best comment I read about Skyfire, and it pretty much sums up what you guys are saying here was:

"The problem with Skyfire is that it is not reporting."

Wayman Dunlap Pacific Flyer



John

[Race 29]

Re: Sky Fire Tapes

I've got all of the Skyfire tapes (I think) and I've enjoyed all of them. The airshow sections get kinda boring, but it was the best air racing coverage available for a long time. Other skyfire videos that I thought were good was "Phantom" (about Nevada ANG RF-4's), "Hoover" (about Bob Hoover), and "The last flight of Tsunami" (about Tsunami, of course). I too have the same complaints about the narration though. One thing I thought was weird was Jim Mitchell called himself "Ram Francis" in the first couple tapes!

You can catch descriptions of each tape here: http://www.skyfirevideo.com/renoairraces/

Race 29